Sport

Edinburgh warns of axe

JUSTIN Edinburgh is expecting another busy summer as he fine-tunes his squad for another crack at League Two promotion.

The Exiles enjoyed a wonderful start to life as a Football League club for the first time in a quarter of a century but have seen their form slip markedly since the turn of the year.

County will likely finish the campaign within three or four points of the top ten, but there have still been more questions than answers raised about the players in the past weeks.

Edinburgh did nothing to set minds at ease at last weeks’ fans’ forum when he indicated a desire to sign “six or seven,” new faces this summer and after another competitive display at the weekend against York yielded a narrow 1-0 defeat, Edinburgh again confirmed his expectation that this season’s transfer turnover will be an increase on last term.

“The frustration for me on Saturday is we should’ve stopped them scoring and come away with a draw, if we weren’t going to win the game it was one to definitely not lose,” he said.

“We know what we need to do in the summer (to improve), we need to bring some fresh faces in and much sure the recruitment is right.

“The players that leave the club, we need to ensure we replace them with better and that’s what we will look to do.”

“I think you learn a lot about players in these types of games where on paper it’s more important for them, but the spirit and effort was good.

“We’ve had a real slog in the second half of the season and I hope the players will be better for it.”

Edinburgh was pleased with the performance his side gave at Bootham Crescent against the play-off hopefuls but was critical of both the result and the manner of the goal conceded.

“We were worthy of something out of the game at a tough place against a team in the play-offs and the way we played we should certainly have come away with a draw,” he said.

“We had our chances, in general play it was a well fought game, we were competitive, but too many times since the turn of the year we’ve lost by one goal and it becomes frustrating. I can’t fault the effort or commitment but if you aren’t going to win these games, you certainly shouldn’t lose them.

“I thought it was a soft freekick and the referee got conned for it, but McLoughlin I’m sure will look at it and say he should have saved it, it was bread and butter really.”

Edinburgh also revealed defender Andy Sandell has suffered damaged shoulder ligaments. Depending on the decision made over his future, he might have played his last game for the Exiles.